memorialized since world war ii. thursday night at 7:00, we are with aom the newseum discussion on the 1968 vietnam war tet offensive. and friday night at 8:00, and lincoln's and howard onversity professor medford abraham lincoln's friends and enemies. watch american history tv this week in prime time on c-span3. >> the senate returns at 10:00 this morning to continue work on a temporary spending measure to reopen the government. they have a vote set for noon that would determine the fate of a three-week extension of government funding. here is a look at some of their floor debate from sunday. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today for one simple reason. that reason is to tell this body to stop pointing fingers and

start writing a budget that works for not only my state but every state in the union. it can be done. it's been done many, many, many times before. unfortunately, this year, our budget ran out on september 30. we had a c.r. that took us from the next day, october 1, to december 8. and then when december 8 rolled around, we had another continuing resolution, c.r., to take us from december 8 to december 22. and then when december 22 rolled around, we had another c.r. that took us from december 22 to january 19, and that's where we are today. because some of us said enough is enough. we need to have a budget that works for this country. here we are on bay two of the government shutdown, and this

body can't even agree to pay our troops. that's how dysfunctional we have become. now we're using military men and women as political pawns because of the dysfunction we have here in washington, d.c. in the past, we have always taken care of these folks because the service members and their families have sacrificed much for this country. but we continue to draw out the leadership of this body for political gain. the folks i talk to, the rank-and-file folks, think it's ridiculous, both sides of the aisle, and they think it's ridiculous that we've gotten here in the first place. but the truth is if we're going to get predictability and the ability for our agencies to plan

and the military to plan and the v.a. to plan and our border security folks to plan and everybody else, we need to have a budget that goes longer than month to month or three weeks to three weeks. we need a budget that funds more than just chip. it's interesting that chip that could have been three months ago, i had events in montana talking about how important this was months ago. i am cosponsoring a bill that has set on the leader's desk that could have been passed months ago, but it was put in i guess as a sweetener but unfortunately using chip as a political pawn isn't exactly what i had in mind for the program, a program that's been around nearly 20 years and served montana's family so very, very well. but that's not the only program that we haven't funded. we haven't funded our community

health centers. i heard the senator from alaska talk yesterday about how critically important they are for alaska. whether it's critically important for montana. i have a notion they are critically important for every rural state in the union and probably every urban state, too, as far as that goes. that needs to be taken care of. in montana, where we have just over a million people, 100,000 people depend on community health centers for their health care. then there is a thing called 340-b, not to get in the weeds too far, but these are payments given to hospitals that hold pharmaceutical companies accountable and keep our hospitals open. i had hospital administrators and former hospital administrators in my office over the last month telling me if this doesn't get fixed, we're going to lose hospitals in montana. once again, taking away access from regular folks. that's not included in any of this and could have been done

months ago. there have been plenty of folks come to the floor and talk about opioids, talk about pensions. neither of those are included in this. there is no money for the borders. the southern border needs some attention. the northern border does, too, particularly the ports. there is no predictability for our military. defense secretary mattis has said that many, many times. things that are closer to home like rural ambulance services needs to be addressed, isn't addressed. it isn't going to be addressed unless we push the envelope and get -- work to get things done here. teaching health centers that allows us to have doctors in places around this country that can't get doctors.

criticalically important. full medicare coverage for physical therapists and occupational therapists. we're going to lose these folks if we don't have it. special diabetes program for -- particularly for indian country where diabetes is rampant needs to be addressed. plus a whole lot more. when i was in high school, i debated for a couple of years, and one of the things that was interesting during the debate, because you would go through the debate and you would hear the affirmative and the negative lay out their cases much in the same way as being done by the two leaders here on this issue. when you got done debating, if one team was particularly behind or ahead, they would say well, they didn't make a case on why this is a good idea. or they didn't make a case, the

negative did not make a case and why their case should stand over the affirmative. and i hear the same thing today. when folks come to the floor and say people agree with everything that's in it. well, i don't, because there ain't much in this. we have been coming here for the last four months since the budget ran out the end of september and continue to kick the can down the road. it's just how dysfunctional this body has become. we can't do the basic thing that we were elected to do, and that's pass a budget until the end of the year and have it include the things that are so important to this one, whether it be military or whether it be health care whether it be issues that resolve around medicare, whether it be issues that revolve around pensions. we just don't do much. and i think many of us are getting very tired of saying, you know what, we don't want to -- we don't want to put forth any excellence in this body.

we don't want to put forth any vision or any leadership. we're just going to do the bare minimum every day. we need to stop. congress needs to stop. with short-term solutions going from crisis to crisis. that is no way to run a nation, and i would tell you that most folks on both sides of the aisle would agree. that's why we need to start working together to get this problem fixed, because it's a problem. the problem of three-week or four-week c.r.'s, the problem of not addressing the issues that are so critically important to working families and businesses in this country need to stop. we need to work together. i have said yesterday we're being pulled apart by the far left and the far right, and that's the truth.

in days gone past, in mike mansfield's day, 70% of the work got done in the middle. now we don't even do the basic of work today. so i would say let's get together. the truth is the republicans control the white house, they control the house, they control the senate, they control the agenda, and they should. they won the last election. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't work together as democrats and republicans and most importantly as americans to do what's right by this country. so i would just ask that, in particular to the leaders on both sides, get together, do the tough negotiations, compromise, and come up with a budget that works for not only montana but for every state in this great country.

mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota -- i'm sorry. wisconsin. he told me minnesota. ms. baldwin: i'm proud to be a wisconsin senator. mr. president, washington is broken. washington isn't working for wisconsin or minnesota or the rest of america, for that reason. and i rise today to call on all my senate colleagues, democrats

and republicans, to fix it. i think it's very important for all of us to be honest with the american people and shoot straight with how we got to this point where we are today, amidst a government shutdown. at the end of september, nearly four months ago, the republican majority missed a major deadline, a deadline to pass a budget for america and its government and appropriations bills that fund the government for the year. republicans have the power of the majority here in the united states senate, in the house of representatives, and the presidency. yet, the republican leadership

has failed, failed to put together a budget for america and its government. that provides certainty for our country. families in wisconsin who are struggling pie check to paycheck to paycheck, they put together a budget for their families because they have to in order to make ends meet. but here in washington, my friends on the other side of the aisle have played by a different set of rules. on friday night they didn't put forward a budget for america and its government. instead they offered their fourth short-term continuing resolution for the last four months. this is no way to govern, simply kicking the can down the road each month and ignoring the real

needs of our country. the federal budget is not a calendar year budget. rather it runs from october 1 to september 30 each year. there are all sorts of historical reasons for why that is, but among them, if we get our work done on time, local governments and other entities that have calendar year budgets get to see what federal funds have been allocated for the things that we do jointly, that make a real difference in people's lives. and the congress is supposed to get its budget done actually in the spring, and then finish its appropriation process by september 30. in fact, today we should be starting our work on the 2019

budget. instead we are still working on the 2018 budget that should have been completed last spring and appropriations bills that should have been done by september 30. the majority had from september 30 until december 9. that was the first short-term continuing resolution as its known, to get the job done. and on a bipartisan basis we allocated that time through a continuing resolution. the majority had then from december 9 until december 22, another short-term continuing resolution. and then from december 22 to january 19, another continuing

resolution. but the governing majority still hasn't done its work, so they asked for yet another four weeks. this month-by-month approach from the majority has failed. it has failed to provide our military and troops with the budget certainty they need. we heard from secretary mattis and his team this week about how harmful these continuing resolutions are to our nation's military, and the majority should heed those words because it impedes the military's ability to plan for the defense of our nation. under repeated continuing resolutions, the department can't start new programs, hiring and recruitment are limited, and our national security funding priorities are left on auto pilot. the defense department has made

it clear that they need a long-term budget, not week by week and month by month measures. but the majority has failed to deliver results. our veterans need v.a. reforms so that they can get the health care services that they have earned. and i've worked in a bipartisan manner on a number of reforms of the v.a. choice program, but the continuing resolution offered and rightly rejected by both democrats and republicans shortchanges veterans health when we should be working together to serve those who have bravely served this nation. four months ago congressional republicans let funding for children's health care expire. they refused to pass legislation

that funds the child health insurance program otherwise known as chip. 170,000 children in the state of wisconsin rely on chip for their health care. but the congressional republicans were more concerned at that period of time in giving away massive tax breaks. 80%-plus of the benefits go to the upper 1% in big corporations. in fact, while these children were ignored, republicans gave permanent tax cuts to powerful corporations and now won't provide permanent funding for the chip program, for children's health insurance for low-income families. four months ago the majority

party that controls washington let funding for community health centers lapse. in my home state, 300,000 wisconsinites are served by community health centers, including kids on chip. two weeks ago i visited one of those community health centers in green bay, wisconsin. the health care workers and staff describe the anxiety and uncertainty they feel every day because they don't know whether they will have the funding they need to minister to the health care needs of those that they serve. many community health centers can't move forward with longer-term contracts for services or repairs or invest in new medical equipment because they don't know if or when washington will act.

they found out on friday night a continuing resolution offered just like the three before it failed to address funding for community health centers once again. but it did give tax breaks to big insurance companies. we cannot leave our community health centers without the funding they need to serve the people that we all work for. we should take action now to fully fund them because they can't wait any longer. i know that every one of my colleagues here in the senate has come face-to-face with the opioid epidemic. i know i have. i traveled my state and met with health care workers, local

officials, people from law enforcement and the judiciary who are working on the front lines of this crisis. i know what it's like to have a loved one dependent upon narcotics. i met with families who have lost a loved one to this epidemic. i met with family members who are currently finding their own lives totally upended because of a loved one hooked on opioids. there is bipartisan support for doing more. there is support across party aisles for the federal government to step up and be a stronger partner in this fight. a short-term stopgap measure isn't going to do it, and we all know it. so let's find the will to work

together to provide strong investments in local communities so they have the resources they need for prevention treatment and recovery efforts. let's work together to save lives. we are where we are right now because i think washington has lost sight of what our work here should be about. making a difference in people's lives. hundreds of thousands of young people have had their lives placed in limbo by the politics of washington. the dreamers who have only known america as their home, are working hard. they're going to school. they're serving in our military. president trump has threatened them with deportation.

right now we have a bipartisan solution that republican leadership in both the senate and the house have refused to make a commitment to passing. this bipartisan solution strengthens border security and does right by the dreamers. just a couple of weeks ago i spoke with an education leader in wisconsin. he told me that his school, a catholic k through 12 school, employs by his count 23 dreamers. he can't imagine the devastating impact it might have if we don't figure this out. on thursday last week i spoke with a wisconsin dreamer. she made her way to d.c., and this wasn't her first trip, to tell her powerful story.

she asked for an why you want -- she asked for an update and i told her what i thought was happening here, and she told me she had just eight days left before her daca status expires. and she said i don't know what i'm going to do, how i'll be able to work. today she has only five days left. we have a bipartisan solution that senate republicans and democrats have worked on together, so let's do our job. let's get it done. i have the privilege of working for a state with a work ethic that is second to none. i am deeply humbled by that privilege, and i do everything i can to respect and reward the

hard work of wisconsinites. that is why i've been working for months on pension reforms, because when people work hard and they play by the rules and build their retirement security, they should be able to depend on the pensions they have earned. right now 25,000 wisconsin retirees and workers have had their pensions threatened through no fault of their own. i have visited with these workers throughout the state of wisconsin, in green bay, in endeavor, in milwaukee, in brookfield. hundreds of them. they each have a powerful story. i spoke to one worker who started his job as a trucker at age 23. he worked 40 years.

at several stages in his career he had the opportunity, if you'll call it that, to forego a potential increase in wages so that he could put more into his pension, so that he and his wife could enjoy a secure retirement. but today he and thousands of others are facing the prospect of massive cuts to the pensions they earned unless congress acts. they can't afford to have us kick the can down the road once again. they need us to act and keep the promises of the pensions they worked so hard for. let's work together. let's work together and get the job done by passing the butch lewis act and save the pension that over a million workers and

retirees across this country are counting on. mr. president, enough of round after round of fighting. the american people are fed up with it. they did not send us here to perform a monthly melodrama. they sent us here to get theupbgdz done. they -- get things done. they didn't send us here to play political games and create chaos. they sent us here to work together on solutions to the problems that they face and that we face jointly as a nation. the biggest problem we face right now is that washington is broken. it's up to us to fix it. so let's start working together to get the job done. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i thank the senator. i see the distinguished senator from alaska on the floor, and i

will not be long, as i noted to him. i am speaking in my capacity as the democratic manager of the legislation before us. i think like most of us and most people in the country, we're frustrateed by what is happening because i have only heard one person say they want a government shutdown. he got exactly what he wanted. it was president trump who said the country could use a good shutdown. president trump said a shutdown would be good for him politically. president trump tweeted yesterday, the shutdown was a nice present to himself. well, the united states of america is not designed to give presents to the president.

we expect the president to do what's best for the country, not for themselves. what's best for the country, of course, would be not to have a shutdown. people are suffering under the trump shutdown. for him to call it a nice present to himself escapes reality. in fact, between rubbing his shoulders with the super wealthy at his father's fundraiser last night, the president's son said the shutdown is a good thing for us politically. it is hard to make up this kind of detachment from our country. i want to make one thing very clear to president trump. there is no such thing as a good government shutdown. it's not a good thing that today medical research has ground to a halt. it's not a good thing that a family in vermont and new hampshire tried to help their -- trying to help their loved one overcome opioid addiction cannot access the resources they need.

it is not a good thing training exercises for our military were canceled this weekend. but the president is apparently thinking of himself and playing the politics of fear and obstruction. in fact, he was actually prepared for it, hoping for it. yesterday morning, the first day of the trump shutdown, the president's campaign posted a video that was nothing short of racist fearmongering. propaganda meant to scare the american people has no place in our democracy. instead of playing the politics of fear, the president should be leading and working with us to reach a bipartisan deal on a path forward. that could be done if the president really wanted to lead instead of talking about what's a good political present for himself? i think he knows this. in 2013, when talking about the government shutdown at that time, he said the president has

got to give everybody the room and he's got to lead. so far, the president and the republican leadership continue to lock democrats out of negotiations. if they do that, they include the voices of half of the american people. this morning, the president even said the senate should change its rules to permanently exclude the input of the minority party. i have been here many times in the majority, many times in the minority. i can't think of republicans or democrats who wanted to take that chance because someday the shoe is always on the other foot. i was so proud to be asked by senator bob dole, one of the great leaders of this senate, a republican leader to speak on his behalf at the gold medal presentation this past week,

because he knew both sides have to work together. i have long said the senate could be the conscience of the nation. it could be the con shins of thn precisely because it forces bipartisan compromise. it forces the inclusion of views across the political spectrum and because its members -- and i include the republican leader, the majority leader today. they have a deep respect for this institution. we're not going to take a sledgehammer to the senate. now, it's the majority's responsibility to produce a bill to send to the president. they didn't get 60 votes because they had not negotiated with democrats. the republican leadership presented the senate with a bill that was produced behind closed doors with no involvement from the democrats. i suspect no involvement from any of his own party and he allowed no amendments.

that's a recipe for failure, and that failure and the president's inability to keep his word puts us here. the republican party controls the house, the senate, and the white house, and it's their job to govern and to lead. it's their job to reach out with us and come up with a compromise. in my 43 years here, i have been in so many of these compromises. the people across the political spectrum where no one of us got everything they wanted, but the country was far better off. the president promised to treat daca recipients with great heart. instead, he's holding our nation's dreamers hostage to a right-wing anti-immigration agenda. he rejected a bipartisan deal, the bipartisan daca deal with senators graham, durbin, and others from both parties,

specifically drafted to meet what the president said were his demands. in the wake of his heartless decision to end daca, nearly 122 dreamers lose status every day. 122 yesterday. 122 today. 122 more tomorrow. and the trump administration has acknowledged to congress that implementing any dream legislation would take up to six months, during which tens of thousands more could lose their status. the young man was excelling in medical school. in an interview, he says he worries about a knock on the door, and he may have to leave. the irony is there is a whole lot of other countries that would like to have him, even though he is in an area where we have a shortage of doctors. we know that on march 5,

hundreds of thousands of daca recipients will lose their status because of president trump's actions. now, republicans argue there is no urgency to provide protections to dreamers. it couldn't be further from the truth. since president trump decided to revoke the protective status, these hundreds of thousands of dreamers have had to live with fear and anxiety every day. no urgency. i tell you right now, if this is part of my family, i would feel the urgency not every hour, every minute, every second. we're here because for 113 days -- we had 113 days to do this. just kicked the can down the road on the basic responsibility of congress to fund the federal government. the republican leadership has failed to reauthorize the children's health insurance program. they have failed to advance legislation to protect the dreamers. now, for 113 days, democrats

supported three continuing resolutions. i voted for a critical one of those. but we had the promise from the republicans to do a little more to reach a bipartisan deal. the time they said they needed it is long gone. we voted for a continuing resolution in september to provide more time. we voted for a second continuing resolution in early december to provide more time. we voted for a third continuing resolution in late december to keep the government going. it won't be different if we wait another four weeks. we have all the pieces to reach a bipartisan path forward. all we have to do is say yeah, let's do our job. we want to raise the budget caps set in place by the budget control act. we want to stop the devastating consequences of sequestration, both defense and nondefense legislation. we want to take care of the

bipartisan children's health insurance program. we want to extend community health centers. we actually have a bipartisan agreement to protect the dreamers. let's not kick the can down the road. if we pass another continuing resolution without a bipartisan agreement, we only drive further into the fiscal year without doing our jobs. the american public, republicans and democrats alike, will know that. if we then reach an agreement at the end of the next continuing resolution, we would still need another month to write the appropriations bills, which could bring us halfway into the fiscal year. now, as vice chairman of the appropriations committee, we are ready to start moving on those bills the second that we have an agreement because we can't govern by continuing resolution. our military cannot function under a continuing resolution and under the burden of sequestration. we democrats have been ready, willing, and asking to negotiate

a bipartisan deal since june. we need to reach a deal on a long-term path forward. we need to have the courage to reach that deal now. mr. president, i see my friend from alaska on the floor, and i will yield the floor and ask consent that my full statement be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, as you can see here, a lot of senators are coming down, talking about the government shutdown. we are in a shutdown, a completely avoidable shutdown, and i think it is important -- there are a lot of speeches and everything. i think it's important to be clear on one fact that the position of the democratic leadership on friday night was this -- unless you agree with our demands on the daca issue by midnight, we'll shut down the federal government. i don't think anybody disagrees with that's what the position

was friday night. the irony, of course, is there wasn't even a bill to agree on, but that still was the position so the decision was in their hands, they made it, and here we are. completely avoidable, and we need to get this government of ours up and running again. but, mr. president, what i have been coming to the floor to talk about for the last few days on the eve of the shutdown and each day during the shutdown is to emphasize one point, one point. that the american people need to be skeptical. they need to be very skeptical. as the members of the senate democratic leadership and some of their colleagues trot out newly polished talking points emphasizeing their concern for the military and readiness and rebuilding our forces and more

spending on defense. you might be hearing this. as a matter of fact, i've heard that argument from the leadership on the other side more in the last three days than i have heard in the last three years. as a senator in this body. even the junior senator from vermont this morning on cnn was talking about the importance of rebuilding our military. wow. that's new. so you're seeing these new talking points. now, mr. president, i respect, get along well with all these senators, the democratic leader, democratic whip, junior senator from vermont i just mentioned, the senator from wisconsin was just on the floor talking about, again, big emphasis on the democratic side on the military. i have respect for them. i know they're all patriotic. i know they all love their

country. but one thing i think is pretty clear, at least in my three years in the senate, this has not been their area of focus, it hasn't been. go look at the speeches. it has not been the focus on fully funding, rebuilding our military. that's not where the democratic leadership has been. but it seems to be now with these new points. now, of course, i welcome this. i welcome this change of heart. i welcome this new emphasis on fully rebuilding our military forces. in fact, there is many of us in the senate, a lot of us who serve on the armed services committee like the presiding officer, led by senator mccain, we have been focusing on this issue for years. a lot of republicans, some democrats. and i mentioned a few on the floor the other day, but this is an issue we have been focused on literally daily because it's a

huge problem right now in the country, and it's enormously important for my state, the great state of alaska, whether it's our active duty forces, our reserve forces. we have thousands and thousands, not only serving in the military now but who have served. more vets per capita than any state in the country, and thousands of civilians and family members who support them. so these issues of military funding, rebuilding our military are really important to a lot of us, so i welcome, i welcome the democratic leadership's new focus in the past 72 hours on military readiness, on supporting our troops. on rebuilding our forces, but i will admit this, that i'm skeptical, very skeptical. the american people watching

this debate, at home or in the gallery, you should be skeptical today. you should be skeptical when the junior senator from vermont talks about being stronger in the military. what is really going on here, mr. president? why all this new talk from the democratic leadership about how important it is to fully fund our troops. how come they weren't talking about this last year or the year before? well, i think they might be overcompensating. i think they might be worried. i think they might be feeling a bit defensive. i think they might be trying to preempt arguments that their policies of late have actually been harmful to the military and our troops and their families. and the truth is, mr. president,

their policies of late have been harmful to our military forces and our readiness. here are a few important points. from 2010 to 2016, the second term of the obama administration, the department of defense budget declined by 25%. that's not a focus on the military, that's for sure. and there were dramatic, dramatic troop cuts. as a matter of fact when i first started in this body in 2015, the obama administration announced they were cutting 40,000 active duty army troops. this was in 2015. 5,000 of which were focused on alaska. and because of this, we've seen readiness in our armed forces plummet. here's a few disturbing facts, a few disturbing trends. at least one-third of marine

aviation isn't flying right now. we've had numerous mishaps that have killed marines because of accidents. only five out of eight brigade teams are fully ready. we have the smallest u.s. air force in u.s. history. we have a pilot shortage in the air force and navy with regard to being able to recoup pilots. training hours for our pilots each month have been cut in half, and there are reports right now that chinese and russian pilots are getting much more monthly training than our forces. we've had naif mishaps -- naval mishaps at sea that have killed several sailors in the primes of their life. the best and the brightest of our country. we all recognize that there is a big problem because as we are

cutting forces and cutting spending for the last several years, the national security threats to our country were dramatically increasing. we're cutting forces, we're cutting spending, and isis is rising. north korea is becoming an enormous immediate threat, iran, china, russia. so the world isn't any safer. and yet we've been cutting our military, our forces and the funding for our troops. that's why they are starting to be a change right now. we passed the national defense authorization with a dramatic authorization for an increase in the military spending, but it's still not appropriated. again, mr. president, when it comes to the democratic leadership's new talking points, actions speak louder than words.

the new talking points don't mean much in the face of actions that have actually undermined our military. let me provide a few examples. in the past three years every defense appropriations bill that has passed out of the appropriations committee has been filibustered by the democratic side. let me say that again. every time we brought a bill, usually a very bipartisan bill out of the appropriations committee for the funding for our troops, every single time it gets filibustered by the democratic side. that's not supporting our military. a number of us have come down. we talked about this. we encouraged our colleagues, don't support the filibuster. and then we've asked, why are you doing this? why are you doing this? we all know that our forces have

been cut too dramatically, that national security challenges have increased, and yet every single time we bring a bill out of the appropriations committee to fund our troops, the other side filibusters that bill. now, most people back -- if most people back home knew that, whether they are democrat or republican, doesn't matter what state you live in, if you knew that was going on the senate floor, you probably wouldn't be happy. but that is happening and it still happens every time. a senator: will the senator yield to a question? mr.sullivan: no, i will not yield. hopefully my colleague from hawaii hasn't been filibustering spending for our troops, but it has happened. in the summer of 2015 it happened five times in a row. next. right now we're having these

discussions on the appropriate level of defense spending but the other side is saying, no, there has to be parity -- parity, meaning that if we increase defense spending, which people are now saying we need to do, and we do, you have to correspondingly increase domestic spending. well, again, the vast majority of americans don't agree with that position. that's not a position that's showing strong support for our military, and yet that's the position right now. that's one of the reasons we've had a difficulty coming to a final top line number. in other words, if you want to increase the budget for the marines, you need to increase the bunt for the e.p.a. or another domestic agency. well, again, that's not showing this newfound emphasis and importance with regard to the military. but let me just provide the last one, mr. president. this government shut down, we

all know that really hurts our troops. we all know that really hurts training, we all know it really hurts planning. right now if you're a lance corporal in the marine corps fighting in iraq or somewhere else around the world for our national security, you've just been told you're not getting paid. right now the families of survivors for the military, meaning your husband or your wife or your dad was killed in action, you get survivor's benefits. guess what happened on friday night. those families no longer get survivor's benefits. we all heard it, and i would agree, a c.r. is bad for the military. i fully agree with that, but, mr. president, there's one thing

that's actually worse for the military and our troops right now, shutting down the government. that's worse. that's worse than a c.r. and when my colleagues on the other side trot out statements from general mattis and others, that's their view. shutting down the government is the worst thing we can be doing right now. so a little bit of news today. this was in the "alaska dispatch in news" now known as the "anchorage daily news." i'm going to quote a couple of sentence from this article, mr. president. it says lieutenant colonel c olstead said that the alaska national guard canceled their

drills this weekend due to the government shut down. about 4,000 guard members, we have a lot of military, like i said, in alaska, said that the state was somewhere en route and they were told to go home. now, alaska's a big state. sometimes you can fly 1,000 miles within alaska to go to a drill weekend. she said, quote, drill weekends are when the bulk of our force, our traditional part-time guard members train alongside our full-time personnel. well, that's not helpful for our military. national public radio this morning did a big story on what was going on with the military. again, they focused on alaska as well. they said at least 4,000 people were impacted. the reporter talked about how

stressful this is for families. how, let's say you're a corporal in the army, you and your family can go into debt because you're not getting paid. think about if you're deployed overseas and your wife is calling you and saying, i can't pay the rent. that's what we did. that's what my colleagues did on friday night. so, again, these new talking points, hey, we really support the military, be skeptical because actions speak louder than words. but it's not just the military members. in alaska, as i mentioned, there are hundreds, probably thousands members in the civilian store, many who are veterans, according to the n.p.r. story, they are going to go to work on monday and they are going to tell if they are essential or not and they have four hours to pack up their stuff and go home.

so this is clearly -- clearly -- mr. president, disrupting our military. and it's not just alaska. it's all over the country. and, to be honest, it's all over the world. let's talk about the civilian workforce here in virginia. in this same article that i read from earlier, it says, quote, while uniformed personnel had largely shielded from the shut down effects -- shutdown effects, because they are still working, but not getting paid, those not essential will be furloughed. there are more than 740,000 defense department civilians. general mattis said friday that half of them would be furloughed. and, again, it's not just military members. it's the feamtion. i mentioned -- families.

i mentioned survivor benefits. there's also things called insurance that cover things, for example, like funerals. this article continues, already on saturday other effects were felt across the military. one particularly sensitive one is the temporary suspension of $100,000 payments promised to military families in the event their loved one dies so that they can travel and prepare for funerals. well, that's now been suspended. and even our forces overseas. the article goes on to say, the armed forces network which carries television broadcast of sporting events and other programming was taken off the air at midnight leaving deployed troops without one common way to watch n.f.l. playoffs this weekend. that might sound like a small

thing, but if you're deployed overseas, serving your country overseas, and you want to touch base with america, watching a football game is a great way to do that. but, guess what. our troops aren't even going to have that small privilege. so, in conclusion, mr. president, the next time the democratic leadership or some of my colleagues come down to the floor or go on cnn emphasizing their concerns for the troops and rebuilding our forces and knowing that we have to do a lot more to spend on the military, be skeptical. be skeptical. the talking points are nice. we're hearing them from everybody. it's the actions that count. it's the actions that count. and they speak a lot louder than

these newly crafted slick talking points. this has not been the focus of the democratic leadership. it hasn't been. and i believe some of them, giving these new talking points are a little bit concerned or a little bit haunted by the specter of the democratic party once against being known, as they were in the 1970's, as the antimilitary party. no, i will say this. the vast majority of my colleagues, democrat, republican, care about our forces, very patriotic, and care about our veterans. but the way you show that is not through talking points. the way you show that is through actions and policies that are truly and sincerely focused on supporting our troops and rebuilding our military, and we -- we can start that. we